


To Fall, To Float, To Soar Again

by Jahaliel



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Butterfly is a noble's daughter who runs from home, F/M, First Meeting, Owl is a bastard son of the Hirata line, pre-game, some violence, this is all headcanons and my personal idea for their backstory, young! Owl and Butterfly AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24624955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jahaliel/pseuds/Jahaliel
Summary: the first time they meet he nearly loses a finger to a well placed kunaithe second time they meet his sword is quicker to draw steel sings and sparks flythe third time they leave together to make their fortunes, and if she side-eyes him in the moonlightwell, who could blame herthe story of Owl and Butterfly before they became.
Relationships: Lady Butterfly/Great Shinobi Owl
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Wind sings through Crystal Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to @dragonhoardsbookz for helping me find the title. This one goes out to @justawayfan and @dahmumu on tumblr for being great friends to chat about Sekiro with <3 And to @leonidasVIII for being awesome. also i might need to update the rating and warnings - just as a heads up to any readers - it will be done at the chapter update.

When she was little her nurse had entertained her with colourful butterflies made of light - they danced through the air with sounds a little like wind-chimes; and her nurse had told her it was their secret. She was good at keeping secrets, this young pretty girl-child, and she was spoiled by her wealthy parents. She told them that she wanted to learn, so they hired scholars and tutors on all topics - from finance to dance. And one day an older woman arrived at their door, offering to be both bodyguard and teacher in defence. Reika's parents accepted and Fuuri quickly became Reika's favourite teacher.

Because she knew magic.

Reika learns how to throw kunai; how to be underestimated and how to fight by day. At night when she was left alone but for the quiet presence of Fuuri that is when she learns magic - how to resummon her kunai from the other side of the room (and then further), how to craft illusions of smoke and light. The first one that holds a form for longer than a moment is a butterfly, just like the ones her nurse made for her. It lands on her outstretched hand and she's never smiled like this before. Fuuri sees it and smiles too, glad for her pupil's success.

After she proves a second time that her control of the illusion wasn't a fluke, Fuuri takes her out on a trip to a misty forest. In the shadows and mist the illusions come easier - when Reika asks to know why they didn't come here first, Fuuri laughs gently , smiling at her little shadow she explains "If you begin by taking the easier path you will never truly learn or understand the technique." They remain out in the forest for a week before returning home. It becomes a yearly tradition, the two of them far from any civilisation crafting magic and sparring among the trees. Her kunai trail butterflies in their wake, mixing the magical and mundane is a high like no other.

When Reika turns sixteen her parents tell her of their plans for her future - a marriage to a nobleman of middling-standing, she uses all the persuasion that her tutors taught her to get them to agree to a long engagement. They travel to meet him, Fuuri a quiet presence at her side. He's a nice enough man as men go; and her parents are pleased by her seeming compliance. But later at home when she goes with her teacher - now her friend back to forest to make mist dance into illusions she knows.

There's nothing more important to her than the feeling of having power dance at her fingertips.  
Nothing she wants to do more than continue to learn and maybe teach one day in turn.

That night, her decision burning bright in her heart she is practicing throwing her kunai and calling them back when there is a movement to her left. Quick as a snake she flips the kunai in her hand and sends it flying. There is a hiss - a young man emerges from the shadows; blood is welling on his hand - she frowns a little, he must be fast as the trajectory she'd calculated would have seen that blade through the middle of his palm. She waits, unwilling to be the first to break the silence blooming around them. She won't apologise regardless - watches the man reach out offering back her kunai - his pale eyes catch the light of the moon and the mist. She reaches out and snaps the blade back into her hand, flips it to point at the stranger. He grins, amused by her fire and bids her farewell - fades into the mist as quickly as he came. 

Fuuri finds her flipping the kunai idly around her fingers and raises an eyebrow. Reika tells her about the man she'd encountered. And she watches as her teacher's face hardens "I've heard rumours about him. And what I've heard is that he is a man with ambition enough for a hundred - a man who will let nothing stop him from achieving what he wants." She shrugs "Such men leave others as ashes in the wake of their fire. Be careful you don't burn."

They return to Reika's family home and say nothing more about the man.

If he features occasionally in her dreams it is only so that she may actually pin him to a tree with her kunai. 

A year later they are travelling once more to her betrothed's home - this time to set a date for the wedding. On the way, once they stop for the night Reika slips away from the caravan they are travelling with, venturing into the woods so different from the forest she and Fuuri frequent. She dances with her magic and her blades and doesn't sense the watcher. The second night though, he makes his presence known and her thrown kunai clangs off of the sword he carries - it is new. He laughs, gleeful even as she recalls them to her hands.

They dance with blades beneath a pale half moon. Time ceases to hold meaning. Eventually though Reika becomes aware of the changing of the guard - Fuuri's familiar, a great raven, perches upon a nearby tree and caws in warning. She twists away from the fight and the man backs off sensing that the spar is over. He bows to her - there's honest-seeming respect in the gesture, so she returns it before heading back to the safety of the camp.

It occurs to her the next morning that she still has not found out his name. Later as she plans her final escape from the destiny her parents wish for, that she desires no part in, she wonders if perhaps she should seek him out. Though the warning Fuuri gave her lingers in her mind, she decides that she will head to Usui Forest and there stay for a while, and should a bird-of-prey with pale eyes and a mocking grin appear to her there, well perhaps their paths will walk together a while.

She has always enjoyed playing with fire - sparks dance at her fingertips and she smiles.


	2. bitter is the truth of the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> truth is a bitter tasting pill  
> that burns in the belly
> 
> and you, you want the world

There was once a boy who wore fine clothes, who was young and innocent and admired his brother. They were as close as two brothers could be, and Kouki knew that he would protect his older brother who had a head for politics and study but did not like the lessons in self defence that Kouki took too like a duck to water. At his request, backed by his brother a sword is crafted for his small hands, and he learns how to fight, how to move.

The first instructor that his father summoned called him a bastard.

He didn't know what the man meant - but that instructor left a day later and a new one took his place. He doesn't like books anywhere near as much as his now thirteen year old brother but he goes and he finds a dictionary in the library. There in black-and-white is the truth he had never knew - that he was illegitimate, given away by his mother to his father to raise alongside the heir.

Kouki cried that night. He wondered why no-one had told him. His brother, the heir, found him - could always find him. And something in his gut burned even as his brother tried to comfort him. In that moment he realised that the world was a crueler place and from then on he threw himself into his fighting. And he got better and better - new instructors were coming near every week. The one who stayed the longest - a little over a year, was Shinji. Kouki's swordplay went from solid to incredible under Shinji's steady tutelage. Shinji also seemed to understand the fire that burned in his belly, was a bastard himself and one of the things he said stuck with Kouki even as the older man prepared to move on.

You are what you make of yourself.

Shortly after he turns seventeen Kouki makes a decision. He can no longer stay here; no longer pretend like the fire in his gut doesn't want to burn down the estate around him. His brother - even his brother has been growing distant as they aged. But the night he is going to leave his brother comes and finds him - can still always find him. In his hand is the sword that his father gave him, an heirloom of the estate that would never have come to Kouki's hand. And his brother smiles, holding out the sword in offering “take it, please.”  
“It belongs to you.” The bitter reply tears at him, “not a bastard,”  
“It belongs with someone who can use it, and we both know that’s not me.”  
“What will your father say?”  
“I don’t care. He gave it to me and now I am giving it to you. One day perhaps you’ll give it to your own son, and he can be a companion to mine, like you are to me.”  
He takes the blade, slides it from the sheath and performs a few testing strikes. The steel sings in the air and both men smile.  
“Thank you for this.” Kouki says, and then leaves without looking back.

He makes a name for himself as a fighter - travels all over the country. Waking in the morning one day he washes his face in a nearby stream. After he is done it stills enough that he can see the silver of his hair - it had started to grow in that way since he left. It would make him stand out and as he looked at his reflection he decided to embrace it, rather than investing hard earned funds in dye; he is taller now and scarred besides.

If one can not blend in, one should then be memorable. 

In the Usui forest he wanders, fading in and out of the mist with a grace that a lifetime of teachers granted him. And in the trees he sees a young woman - she appears to be alone and he lets himself make a noise as he steps forward. He regrets it briefly when even his excellent reflexes cannot avoid the kunai she throws completely - his dodge means the wickedly sharp blade scrapes a bloody line across the edge of his hand. If he hadn't moved it would have gone right through his palm. He raises an eyebrow and looks at the woman with new respect in his gaze. When she doesn't refuse to take the kunai from his hand but takes it with a barely-there smile, well what else can he do but bow and retreat. 

In his wanderings he finds more teachers, continues to learn and grow and then the first young man comes to him wanting to learn. Suddenly he knows what he wants. A school. A place to train shinobi like himself; to gather in strength and be able to take on bigger contracts with traders and nobles alike. And if in his musings as he watches his student with a raptor's gaze a familiar lady's face features as a fellow teacher, and as a friend, well it's his own private dream.

He takes on the name Usui - it seems fitting; and his fame grows. It is well known that he is a swordsman of the highest order and it is not overly surprising to him when on a cold winter's morning he meets a man named Isshin. If the flame of Kouki's desire is strong what burns in Isshin is a wild-fire, fierce and consuming. He loses their spar - it is the first loss he has experienced in a long time; and he shares sake with Isshin who complements him on his form and tells him that he looks forward to crossing blades again. 

When he next meets the young woman he'd first come across in Usui forest, she is grown more beautiful - and more talented. They cross blades under moonlight and the dance is fierce and wild 'til a crow cries a warning and she slips away. It had not escaped his notice that magic was blurring around her hands; and so Kouki determines that if their paths cross a third time, well that would be fate. 

And fate is what you make of it.


End file.
